90 – Penguin UK (my go to publisher): “It was the Roman Republic’s chin-stroker-in-chief Cicero who said it first: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” But is that really true? And what about a room with only a handful of books?  Ask legendary clean-queen Marie Kondo and she’d likely disagree. For the bestselling Japanese author and her millions of global fans, less stuff = more joy, and the path to true happiness is to only keep the things that make you happy. That includes books. “I now keep my collection of books to about 30 volumes at any one time,” she wrote in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, adding: “Let’s face it. In the end, you are going to read very few of your books again.” But then, if you’d asked Italian writer and inveterate book-keeper Umberto Eco – whose labyrinthine personal library creaked with more than 30,000 books – he’d have told you to cling on to every title you buy for dear life, whether you plan to read it or not. For him, the books you haven’t read are as important as the ones you have. Because unread books are where the real action lies. They represent your literary ambition; the places you’re yet to go. But what kind of book-keeper are you? The kind who can’t wait to get rid of a book the moment you’ve read it? Or the kind who stuffs your home with everything you’ve ever read, like a literary roadmap of your life? Or more likely, you sit somewhere happily in between. Let’s see…”

• 500+ books: The tsundoku master √